The number of possible cases for dividing a hierarchical multimedia source into a number of packets and assigning a separate space-time code to each packet to be transmitted is MNp.
In MNp, M denotes the number of types of assignable space-time codes, and Np denotes the number of packets. Among the MNp possible cases, a case that maximizes an average throughput of the multimedia source needs to be determined. As learned from the foregoing, the number of cases for assigning increases exponentially as the number of packets increases.
To optimize packet transmission, throughputs for all the MNp cases for assigning are calculated numerically, and a case with a maximum throughput is selected. Thus, a great computational complexity is needed.